Texas Rangers Blog

Rangers’ C.J. Wilson to Lee: ‘I’ll be your sidekick, Cliff’

C.J. Wilson knows where Cliff Lee wants to be and it’s not with the Rangers or Yankees.

“I know Cliff to know well enough that he’s deer-hunting right now. That’s where he wants to be and that’s where he wants his mind to be,” Wilson told MLB.com. “His agent’s dealing with all the negotiations. His agent has to be the happiest guy in the world right now. He gets to talk to Brian Cashman, gets to talk to Nolan Ryan. He’s like, ‘Six years? Seven years? Whattya got? Whattya got? These guys are giving me that thing, what are you giving me?’

“The way free agency works — it’s great for the game overall. It’s a chance for a lot of fans to be activated. That’s the one thing I never understood until recently, with Twitter. People were texting me all the time and saying, ‘Please tell Cliff Lee to come back!’ I mean, the guy is a grown man. He’s 33, he’s going to do what he wants to do.”

Wilson was shocked when the Rangers acquired Lee from Seattle in July. He had thought the Yankees were a lock to get him.

“To have Cliff Lee as a fifth starter in a way, yeah, that’s pretty good,” Wilson said with a laugh. “I felt instantly, straight-up, my first thought was, ‘World Series, here we go.’ It turned out to be that way. Hopefully we can bring him back.”

“He sort of legitimized our rotation,” Wilson said.

Wilson said whether Rangers general manager Jon Daniels has not told him to reach out to Lee.

“The team doesn’t really involve the players too much,” Wilson said. “Although a couple years ago, when we tried to sign [Barry] Zito, they brought me to dinner with Zito, and they were like, ‘Hey, you guys are from California, talk about surfing.’ I was like, ‘All right. Cool, man.’

“The funny thing is, Barry and I have actually become friends over the last couple of years because of that.

“I’m just going to leave Cliff alone to do his own thing, because I’m not offering him anything, other than friendship. ‘I’ll be your sidekick, Cliff.’”